Viva la libertad! Anarcho-capitalist Argentinian economist turned chainsaw-wielding President Javier Milei delivered a fiery and wide-ranging speech at CPAC this weekend. The speech in its entirety and English transcript can be found here.
Since taking office nine-and-a-half weeks ago, Milei has eliminated several government agencies, ended crony government contracts, introduced a bill to jail Argentina’s central bankers, and turned the U.S. equivalent of a $1.2 trillion budget deficit into a $400 billion surplus, fulfilling several campaign promises and setting the nation on a path toward fiscal sanity in record time.
While American politicians talk a big game about saving the country, Milei came into office facing 150% inflation and a 40% poverty rate, and unlike any recent American presidential candidate not named Ron Paul, Milei and his background as an economist of the Austrian School knew just the right prescription for his nation’s woes.
At CPAC, the Argentinian president’s lessons in basic economics were fast and furious. Milei decried the evils of socialism and contrasted them with economist Adam Smith’s division of labor.
“Private property and free markets facilitate economic calculation, debunking the feasibility of socialism,” he said. “Socialism lacks private property and market mechanisms, leading to inefficiency and distortion. Competition, not in the neoclassical sense of perfect competition, but as free entry and exit, is crucial. Adam Smith’s concept of the division of labor and social cooperation underlines the inefficiency of socialist ideas. Smith showed how specialized labor significantly boosts productivity. However, without demand, the division of labor can’t be fully realized. Despite any personal differences, market participants must cooperate, promoting peace and undermining socialism.”
Conservatives and populist Republicans alike can agree that socialism is a bad idea. However, many, especially on the so-called “new Right,” have at the very least all but given up the fight to reduce spending and have at worst embraced John Maynard Keynes’s insane and discredited notion that governments can spend endlessly without consequences.
Surely many CPAC attendees have embraced calls to break up “monopolies” in Big Tech and have joined former President Donald Trump in attacking anyone who proposes entitlement reform. I hope they were listening to Milei.
“Monopolies, according to neoclassical theory, produce less and charge more,” he said. “However, monopolistic profits can spur consumption, production, and employment in other sectors. Saving these profits leads to investment and growth. Even if a monopolist hoards wealth, it reduces the money supply, lowering prices and benefiting the population. Interventions in the name of social justice, unlimited democracy, and populism often harm the economy. Countries like Argentina, once among the world’s richest, have fallen drastically due to excessive regulations and state interference.”
Milei draws comparisons to Trump due to the fact that both men are hated by the establishments of their respective countries, but that is where the similarities end.
It is heartening that a conference full of young Republicans would embrace a leader championing free markets, property rights, and individual liberty, something that has not happened since the Ron Paul movement of 2008 and 2012. But they must demand that our leaders, Trump included, embrace sound economics before our nation faces the kinds of perils that Milei is attempting to exorcize from his.
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“Capitalism, contrary to accusations of hyperindividualism, is not only more productive but also fair,” he said. “The market, as a discovery process, creates wealth during production. Those who discover or create new value rightfully own it.”
Wise words. Let’s hope we start hearing them without a translator before it’s too late.
Brady Leonard (@bradyleonard) is a musician, political strategist, and the host of The No Gimmicks Podcast.